maintenance been made part of the revised PC-1, the inordinate delay in resolving the issue of O&M would have been avoided.”
This means that the ministry, headed by then secretary, when placed the revised PC-1 in the Planning Commission for approval, should have incorporated that the O&M of the project will be outsourced through the ICB. But the ministry showed its inefficiency which led to inordinate delay in making the project operational. The project is currently being operated by GE and Albario staff in intervening period as a stop-gap arrangement, but the question arises under which mechanism, the project has been handed over to both the companies and has running of the project by GE and Albario any legal cover?
Sate Minister of Water & Power Ch Abid Sher Ali after getting the inputs from the relevant senior official of the ministry on the issue of outsourcing of O&M of Nandipur power plant responded to The News saying: “Yes, the ministry has deviated from PC-I, but with positive intent.”
He said: “In public sector Guddu power plant we are facing the problems of making the plant operational as whenever any spare part is needed in the head of O&M, the concerned Genco has to issue the tender and some time the aggrieved parties move the court of law and get stay and owing to this very reason some machines are non-operational. Keeping in view such kind of constraints, the ministry decided in a meeting that the O&M of Nandipur project should be outsourced under which the selected company that is to be having the contract to run the plant will be responsible to deliver the guaranteed electricity units and the said private company will be responsible to keep the project updated in terms of replacement of any spare part.”
The minister said that in case of O&M by Genco itself, the time is wasted in tendering and then getting the required spare parts and sometime the project remains non-operational just because of stay by the court in response to the aggrieved party plea that the process of tendering was non transparent. So to avoid the inordinate delay to this effect, the ministry has taken the decision to outsource O&M of Nandipur power plant. The minister insisted that Genco will continue to oversee and monitor the O&M by any party meaning by that Genco will be responsible for making the plant operational and well maintained.
“However, there is always a room to improve the PC-I of the project and this particular anomaly can also be rectified,” the minister argued. “The project has currently been handed over to GE and Albario for intervening period under the decision of Board of Directors.”
To a question, Abid Sher Ali said that the ministry is vigorously working for finalising the required documentation for initiating international competitive bidding and to this effect, the advertisement will be issued to the national dailies within the span of two weeks’ time seeking the expression of interests from interested parties for O&M contract of Nandipur power project.